Page content
Now is the time to help countries faced with liquidity challenges
With elevated debt service squeezing the space available to finance much needed investment in many countries, urgent action is needed to boost fiscal space, maintain adequate international support, and reduce debt servicing costs. Many countries are being squeezed by increasing interest payments and high debt redemptions. The economic scarring of the pandemic, conflicts around the world, and the abrupt rise in global interest rates have hit low-income countries the hardest. The median low-income country is spending over twice as much on debt service to foreign creditors as a share of revenue than it did ten years ago—roughly 14 percent at end-2023 from 6 percent 10 years earlier. […]